


Call me midwife, maybe

by thesameguest



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, the tiniest bit of Zilda bc I'm team spellcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 19:17:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18037289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesameguest/pseuds/thesameguest
Summary: This is a very silly thing I wrote as a consequence of a joke with my wife.Nobody would suspect it, but the Spellmans are quite fond of a certain BBC period drama.





	Call me midwife, maybe

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to my awesome wife, who explores with me the realms of fluffy tv shows and juicy fanfictions.

At first, they started watching it because Hilda loved hearing all of those British accents. Zelda pretended to be reading her Satanic Bible, feigning indifference, while Ambrose started glancing at the tv out of curiosity and nostalgia.

Sabrina had been dragged in it by chance. She was just going to the kitchen to get a glass of water, when she heard Hilda calling her in a cheerful tone. “Hey, luv, why don’t you join us? We’ve just discovered this adorable British drama, and guess what? It’s all about midwives! Midwives in London in the 50s, can you imagine that?”

The 13-year-old slowly approached the other Spellmans in the parlour. She was actually very busy sulking in her room after having been told off by both her aunties about her latest magical mischief, a couple of hours before. She wasn’t exactly in a socialising mood. But Hilda knew the girl was a sucker for period dramas. Beside that, she had basically grown up listening to stories about her adored younger aunt’s and cousin’s past in England, and as a child she had worn her aunties out begging them to take her to London one day.

Hilda patted the small free spot between her and Zelda on the couch, and the newly teenage witch sat down a little stiffly. Without raising her eyes from her book, Zelda shifted slightly to let her niece be more comfortable, before resting an arm around the girl’s shoulders. Sabrina sat back more relaxed, embracing her knees and looking dubiously at the screen.

The story was actually a captivating one, at least for people loving London, social history, and heartwarming feminist plots. Hilda and Ambrose would ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahhh’ every few minutes, recognising bits of the urban landscape and lifestyles they had experienced before Ambrose’s conviction, just a few years before the show's actual setting.

By the end of the episode, Sabrina found herself quite absorbed in the show, too. Being extremely younger than anyone in her family often led her to feel sort of left out and jealous, when it came to shared memories. Ambrose and the aunties had all lived through so many years and historical periods and had experienced so much, together and separately, that she felt like everything in the world had happened “before you were born, lamb”. That was possibly one of her reasons for being attracted to period dramas. Besides, all revolved around midwives and women giving birth – something that half-disgusted, half-amazed her, more so knowing that her aunts had been practising the same profession for over a century. Luckily the first birth scenes were not too graphic, but they were impressive to her, nonetheless. The girl slowly shifted to lean on Zelda’s shoulder, while slipping her hand in Hilda’s during the most intense and emotional moments, her eyes glued to the screen. She only closed them when her older aunt softly kissed her hair, the pretension of reading her Bible left aside, her arms draped around Sabrina. Hoping the scenes she was watching would not trigger her girl's "motherless child" complex, which still made its appearance every now and then, no matter how much Sabrina knew she was loved and safe with her two, very alive and hands-on de facto mothers. 

Thankfully, Sabrina didn't look upset this time. The teen wouldn’t say it aloud, but she still loved being sandwiched between her aunts on their couch. Snug as a bug soaking up its drama drug.

Only when the final credits started to roll, she left out a comment, in a failed attempt at a cool teenage tone. “So that’s what you guys did every day for, like, centuries? Ugh…but…wow.”

Zelda just laughed, while Hilda answered her niece, quite amused. “That’s the gist of it, yes, lamb. But I can assure you those filthy old houses in that pretend-East End look like a fancy hotel room compared to some of the places we worked in. Do you remember, Zelds?”

“You can bet on that, sister” Zelda replied, trying to conceal the last signs of her “pollen allergy”. She had loved midwifery deeply. She had had to give it up to take care of her family and the mortuary, but this sappy British drama had hit her close to home.

“And yet…it’s really sort of like that, love. Bloody terrifying and beautiful at the same time. I do miss it. But I guess I’d be a bit rusty, now” Hilda continued.

Sabrina still looked a little mesmerised, as if she were imagining her aunts, young and adventurous, delivering babies in the strangest places. Hilda had mentioned before having delivered babies in barns, in cabins, in the woods and even on a moving steam train. “I think I never asked you before…how come did you deliver me? I know you were not practising midwifery anymore at the time. Why didn’t my mom just go to the hospital?”

Zelda was the first to answer, her gaze far away, while she stroked the teen’s unruly hair. “It was out of precaution, Sabrina. We didn’t know…we still don’t know a lot about half-witch, half-mortal pregnancies. In fact, their progress may vary quite a lot from one case to another. Diana’s situation was unpredictable. It-it could have turned out very dangerous for you and for her in ways that a mortal physician wouldn’t have been able to deal with. It was safer to have her give birth at home, with us. To intervene with magic in case something went wrong. Which did not happen, thank Satan” she explained with a small smile, while Sabrina nodded.

“Hey, I was there, too! I remember you as the tiniest and ugliest babe ever, cousin” Ambrose joined the conversation, on a lighter tone, poking her cousin’s ribs from behind the couch and provoking a burst of laughter.

“Yes, Ambrose was there, at the end of it” Zelda conceded. “And I must admit that he lent us quite a helpful hand, unlike most men – including your father, Sabrina – in these circumstances” she continued, laying a fond gaze on the young warlock for a moment.

“Wait, why…what did dad do?!” the young witch replied. “He was too nervous, dear” Hilda quickly responded, preventing any snarky remarks that could come from her sister. “He just waited outside, ready to help in case of an emergency, of course”.

“Or better to say, Auntie Zee had to kick him out because he was too clumsy and hysterical at that moment to be of any help” Ambrose jokingly remarked, while the redhead smugly raised an eyebrow to confirm his words.

“Sometimes men are very…sensitive in their own way, possum” Hilda added, throwing a wannabe-death glare at Ambrose. “If you want to, we can tell you more about the day you were born. Just not now, because it’s really late and I’m exhausted”.

“Yes, and some troublemaker acquaintance of ours has school tomorrow” Zelda continued, gently directing Sabrina towards the stairs, before landing a light pat on her backside. “Hey! Ok, all right, I’ll go to bed” the teen chuckled in defeat. “But I want you to tell me all about that, aunties. And I want to watch 'Call the midwife' again next week!”.

\---------------------------------------------

They couldn’t possibly run out of 'Call the midwife' episodes when the reruns came abruptly to an end, right before the season 4 finale. Ambrose ordered the DVDs, one by one, as the Spellman clan became more and more concerned about the fates of Poplar nuns, midwives, and patients.

A routine had been established. Hilda would provide the tea and biscuits, the occasional cooing and the shameless sobbing. Zelda would always pretend she was reading, at first. Then she would anathematise Vanessa Redgrave’s incredibly rhetorical speeches. Then she would tear out at the most emotional scenes, constantly blaming pollen, while her niece and nephew looked at her, amused at the ill-concealed mushiness of the Spellman matriarch.

Ambrose would always eat too many cookies, among general disapproval.

At 15, Sabrina was going through what Zelda has called her Indignados phase; because she prayed Satan that it would be just that – a phase. The girl’s sensitivity to social justice was in full bloom. She would react passionately to – and want to discuss profusely about any social issue represented in the tv show. And Satan knows there was plenty of them. Why were young prostitutes forced to have an abortion? Why didn’t anyone demonstrate against those horrible homophobic laws? What did exactly the Government do about the housing situation?

Although the aunties valued her thirst for knowledge and – up to a certain point – her blooming critical thinking, sometimes even Hilda would just sigh, and Zelda would resort to her most threatening “Shut up or Cain Pit” glares, directing them at Sabrina.

Some stories engaged Sabrina more than others, though.  
“I can’t believe Patsy and Delia went through all of that shit – sorry, aunties – without anyone acknowledging the mas a couple! I mean, they couldn’t tell anyone about it – that must be really tough. I know things were still difficult for LGBT people just a few decades ago, but… how did they cope, having to pretend all the time, knowing everyone would think they were like, monsters if they knew? And how, on Earth, did the other girls, who lived with them, not notice?”

The young witch was rambling while sitting on the rug. She couldn’t notice the brief exchange of glances between her aunts. Nor Hilda’s fingertips stroking very delicately the back of Zelda’s hand. Nor Zelda’s little shiver in response. The longing, fond yet reproachful gaze the older witch laid on her sister didn’t get unnoticed by her nephew, though.

“Mmh, I don’t think so, cousin. I believe their closest relations were quite aware of what was going on between them” Ambrose started tentatively, looking sideways at his aunts. “They probably knew but wanted to protect them and even Pats and Delia thought it was better that way. I mean, you know among mortals homosexuality was quite a huge taboo until…like 3 days ago. They still have lots of taboos. Here they frown upon couples very apart in age…they condemn, say, sibling incest, even though it was normal back in Ancient Egypt and in other cultures, just saying.”

“Yeah…I guess witches have always been more sexually liberated. I mean, we don’t have all of those cultural constraints around sex…we have other constraints, I guess. Anyway. There must be some advantages in being a witch, besides, well, magic.”

“There are advantages, coz, trust me!” Ambrose replied, while he and Sabrina lazily dragged themselves out of the parlour and upstairs to their rooms.

Hilda turned slowly, looking at her sister. “Do you…do you think they reckon…they know something, Zelds?”

Zelda got elegantly back on her feet, raising her eyebrows with her usual hint of smugness.  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Busby. See you in the bedroom. I’ll wear my 50s crimson negligèe tonight. Just saying.”

That sappy drama had definitely hit close to home.


End file.
